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Department of Justice

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Former Town Creek, Ala., Police Officer Sentenced
for Assaulting Arrestee

Brandon Shane Mundy, a former police officer of numerous law enforcement agencies, the most recent being the Town Creek, Ala., Police Department was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor to serve five years in prison and three years of supervised release, and to pay $3,745 in restitution for violating the civil rights of a man during the course of an arrest. Mundy previously pleaded guilty on April 25, 2013, to one count of willfully depriving the man of his constitutional right to be free from excessive force by a law enforcement officer acting under color of law. According to information presented to the court, on Nov. 22, 2009, Mundy was involved in a vehicle pursuit and fired shots at a man’s vehicle before later ramming the vehicle and causing it to wreck in a ditch. While another police officer reached the man and placed him under arrest without resistance, Mundy arrived and unjustifiably and repeatedly beat the man in the head with an object that was either a baton or a flashlight causing the man to suffer physical injury. After Mundy lost control of the object, he continued to strike the man in the head with his fist.

“When law enforcement officers abuse their power and violate the civil rights of those in custody, they will be held accountable,” said Jocelyn Samuels, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute those who cross the line to engage in acts of criminal misconduct.”

“Every police officer is sworn to serve and protect, and virtually all of them take that oath seriously. This officer did not, and assaulted a citizen in violation of his oath,” said Joyce White Vance, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. “My office continues to aggressively prosecute police misconduct and takes a zero tolerance policy in this regard.”

This case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Holt of the Northern District of Alabama and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Daniel H. Weiss.